Over 7,000 former Moro rebels pass PNP qualifying test

ILIGAN CITY—Some 7,145 members of erstwhile rebel groups Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) are now qualified to join the Philippine National Police.

They are among the 11,033 who took the National Police Commission’s Special Qualifying Eligibility Examination held in the cities of Cotabato and Lamitan on May 29.

“We are very grateful that we have a high passing rate for the qualifying exam, and we are very happy because the sacrifice of our applicants has paid off,” said Mohd Asnin Pendatun, Cabinet secretary of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), on Thursday.

Those who passed the exam can now be eligible for recruitment into the police force, in keeping with the program on normalization of former combatants contained in the 2014 peace deal between the government and the MILF.

If they are able to pass the selection stages, they can be accorded temporary appointment as police officer. A permanent appointment can be secured if they obtained a bachelor’s degree, a requirement that they have up to 15 years to comply upon entry into service.

Transformation

Pendatun gave assurance that the BARMM government will continue to provide assistance to the applicants as they undergo the process of being admitted to the PNP.

Prior to the exam in May, the BARMM facilitated review classes to improve the applicants’ chances of passing it.A similar program was also done by the government following the peace deal with the MNLF in 1996, which provided for the integration of some 5,750 of its members into the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

“The entry of qualified MILF and MNLF members into the PNP will help realize the meaningful transformation process for these former combatants, and is a testament of our collective aspiration of bringing a just and lasting peace to the region and to the whole country,” said presidential peace adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. —RYAN D. ROSAURO